It’s been a hot second since we’ve talked about The Velocity of Money here, so as a tl;dr: Taking a small cut when moving money between different ledgers can be rewarding, and doing it a bunch of times makes it a bunch more rewarding.

We can deconstruct that into features we should probably look for in FinTechs, some of which aren’t normally gathered by average due-diligence as far as I can tell:

  • Quick posting
  • Fast transfers
  • Frequent rewards posting and cash-out
  • Real-time payments / FedNow support
  • Cycling tolerance
  • Account scaling

Of course the regular things that we’re looking for like low fees and high limits matter too, but I think most of us have a good handle on those.

Good luck out there, and remember that it’s often better to have a small slice of a huge pie than a big slice of a small pie.

On the other hand, sometimes it’s best to have no slice of a gross pie (sorry for multiple reasons to the singular hot dog pie lover out there).

  1. Chase Offers has a widely targeted offer for $100 off of $600+ on Chase Travel bookings through September 30.
  2. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. These work best when you buy in multiples of $600, and apparently based on recent observations, they also work best when you hide them behind other gift cards or inside the gift card rack🙄.

    These are also Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. Meijer stores have 50,000 MPerks points with a $500 gift card purchase through July 14. Unfortunately you’re limited to one per account, but fortunately, it turns out through some fluke of unnatural universal laws that it’s possible to have multiple accounts.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Staples.com has fee-free $200 virtual Visa gift cards, limit four per transaction. (Yes, yes, I know it says five but here we are.)

    These are also Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards, RIP those US Bank ones though, amirite?
  5. Lufthansa First partner award space seems to be back, at least on a limited basis.
  6. Alaska Airlines may have reverted to its old behavior of allowing the combination of wallet funds and companion fares on the same ticket, re-allowing gamers to game. Reports suggest that this may have been a one-day reversion or maybe a staggered rollout though, I haven’t seen any reports of anyone doing this successfully.

Happy Monday!

Pouring something out for US Bank gift cards.

Somehow the company that thought buy.com was too hard to remember, Rakuten, was the biggest mover for the holiday weekend:

  1. The RobinHood Gold Visa card issued by Coastal Community Bank did the most RobinHood thing ever: They added 3% foreign transaction fees without notifying anyone. Nice.
  2. The Rakuten Visa card’s online portal +3x rewards cap increased from $7,000 to $10,000 annually, and reportedly the card added a $100 referral bonus which will probably stack with the 1-2 days per month periodic $200 sign-up bonus.

    This card mixed with a Bilt Palladium is an affiliate-revenue free unlock.
  3. The Rakuten portal has an $200 / 20,000 point bonus for being approved for a new Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Visa. The card has a $200 sign-up bonus after $1,000 spend in 90 days, and currently earns 6% back in the first year in several categories, capped at $2,500 spend per quarter.

    The double-double cash-back on Bank of America cards is sadly gone though. (EDITED: applied for -> being approved for, thanks to Jim)
  4. The Rakuten portal has a $100 / 10,000 point bonus for being approved for a new Citi Strata Premier Mastercard. The card’s own bonus is 60,000 ThankYou points after $4,000 spend in three months.
  5. The Rakuten portal also has a triple cash back promotion through July 5th, and includes a few hobbies favorites like: Chase Freedom Unlimited, IHG, Sam’s Club, StubHub, and Viator.
  6. Alaska Airlines has an economy award sale for travel booked by tomorrow and flown between September 1 and November 15. Notable prices:

    – Hawaii: 11,500 miles
    – Seoul: 20,000 miles
    – Amsterdam: 20,000 miles

    If you can book this on Alaska metal, you may find paid upgrades to business class are rather modestly priced.

Have a nice weekend friends!

Slightly less modestly priced.

  1. Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, and other Just4U stores have 12x points on $50+ in BestBuy gift cards through Tuesday. Register limits are $500 every 15 minutes.
  2. American Express’s on-again/off-again Summer transfer bonuses are on again, presumably this time for realzies:

    – 30% to Virgin Atlantic through July 31, making the ratio 1,000:1,300
    – 20% to Hilton Honors through July 14, making the ratio 1,000:2,400

    There are use cases for both, but especially the former. If you’re going to be speculative, might I suggest that the Hilton one, uhh, ain’t it chief.
  3. Capital One has a 30% transfer bonus to EVA through July 31, making the transfer ratio 1,000:975. Premium Citi ThankYou cards still transfer at 1,000:1,000 though.
  4. The Chase Sapphire Reserve personal card’s Pay Yourself Back categories changed to gas and transit, and the rate dropped from 1.25 cents per point to 1.20 cents per point for categories other than the annual fee and select charities. The Business version hasn’t changed, but still only offers boosted redemptions on charities.

    The Sapphire Preferred’s Pay Yourself Back categories changed and dropped too, with transit at 1.05 cents per point, and pet supply at 1.10 cents per point.
  5. The Rove travel and shopping portal added Frontier as a transfer partner, which whatever except that it’s a unique partner for a non-hotel program. They’ve got a 25% transfer bonus to Frontier through July 31 making the ratio 1,000:1,250.
  6. American Express Offers has various offers for $200-$250 off of $1,000-$1,250 at Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, and LXR properties in North America.
  7. AirFrance / KLM’s FlyingBlue program released its July 2026 promo rewards for travel through the end of the year. North America to Europe cities:

    – Economy: ATL, DEN, MIA, PDX, RDU, YUL, YVR, YOW for 18,500 miles
    – Premium Economy: LAX, ORD for 30,000 miles
    – Business: JFK for 45,000 miles

    There’s surprisingly good availability in business this summer, so go get some European frites.
  8. Marriott Bonvoy Titanium and Ambassador elites or United Gold, Platinum, or 1K elites can register for a complex promotion for reciprocal bonus points on either paid United itineraries or paid Marriott hotel stays.

    Neither promotion is great, but they’re both better than Texas frites.

Happy Thursday friends!

With Rove and Frontier, you can check my math on Lubbock frites.

  1. PerfectGift.com has a bonus $150 choice gift card when sending a $500 choice gift card to a third party by July 4 using promo code 250SMILES. These can be redeemed for Visa, Home Depot, Target, and other high value gift cards. I hope this gets you more excited than Paze at Wendy’s did, but you’ll need to practice isolation to scale.

    These are Sutton gift cards.
  2. Chase has new co-branded spend offers, check for targeting at chase.com/mybonus. Offers have been seen on at least the Amazon, Aeroplan, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott, Ritz, and United cards, and include:

    – 10x points on $1,000 at gas, grocery, or restaurants
    – 5x points on $1,000 at gas, grocery, or restaurants
    – 3,000, 4,000, or 6,000 bonus points for between $3,000 and $6,000 spend

    Each of these are valid through September 30.
  3. The Twitter X Money Visa underwritten by CrossRiver bank launched for premium subscribers. The vitals

    – The Visa is a debit card
    – There’s reportedly 3% cash back
    – Savings kept in the account will reportedly earn 6% APR
    – You won’t have a custodial, FDIC insured account

    X premium costs $8 per month, and reportedly receiving a payment from an X user that already has the card makes you eligible for the account whether or not you’re a premium subscriber, so queue the worlds weirdest conga.
  4. Xander wrote in to let me know that American Express Blueprint can now create virtual cards for seemingly all business credit cards, including co-branded cards; so long PayWithExtend, and hello more shenanigans.
  5. The Chase Freedom Unlimited Visa card has a new application bonus via Rakuten of either $50 or $90 (or 5,000 or 9,000 points). The card’s $200 sign-up bonus after $500 spend in three months is also part of the deal.

Happy Wednesday!

A clam demonstrates isolation for PerfectGift.com.

Churning and manufactured spending isn’t always rainbows and unicorns. Sometimes we’re stuck dealing with locked accounts, stolen funds from shady FinTechs, shutdowns, weird OnlyFans things (no link on purpose on this one but yes, it’s real), and other hardships from inadvertent financial chicanery. The rewards outweigh those things or you wouldn’t be here obviously, but what if we could break from the monotony of manufactured spend, which is effectively:

Pushing numbers from one ledger to another, then probably back to the first ledger, and taking a cut for doing it.

… and use your ledger pushing to do good in the world? Well, an unlikely contender means that you can: Enter the national pizza chain recently certified as “now edible”, Domino’s Pizza (lolwut), and the June dumpster fire colloquially known as “Paze”.

With your Wells Fargo, US Bank, Chase, Bank of America, Citi, and other issuers’ personal debit and credit cards, you can turn your June dumpster fire into $100 per card to help St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. To do so, donate $10 to St. Jude Children’s Hospital via Domino’s at this link, then pay with Paze (thanks to DoC). You can do this 10 times per Paze card. Other than helping advance cancer research, there are a few other ancillary benefits:

  • You may qualify for a tax write-off
  • You’ll probably earn rewards points, de minimus as they may be
  • Ledger pushing might feel redeeming instead of just enriching

Happy ledger pushing friends!

Cancer, meet Domino’s.

  1. The Delta American Express Business cards have new, targeted online upgrade offers:

    – Delta Business Platinum: 50,000 SkyMiles with $8,000+ in six months
    – Delta Business Reserve: 60,000 SkyMiles with $12,000+ in six months

    If you have a Business Gold and your account is lucky, you can do the Business Platinum upgrade, wait about 31 days, then do the Business Reserve upgrade. If you want to (likely) get shutdown, you could potentially go in the opposite direction.
  2. Staples stores have fee free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. Kroger stores have a coupon for a fee-free variable load Visa or Mastercard loaded with at least $150, expiring today.

    Unfortunately these are limited to one per account, but I have a sneaking suspicion that you might have more than one of those. Call me crazy I guess.
  4. I don’t know of a good place for consolidated grocery news for manufactured spenders, so let’s quick-form one today:

    – Safeway’s Just4U program’s $20 and $15 cash-out options are back after a month hiatus
    – Kroger’s shutdown team works regular business hours, more or less
    – New gold Zift cards aren’t earning Just4U points automatically
    – Kroger coupons continue to stack in new and unusual ways

    I’m still workshopping a name for a periodic section like this, and grocery quickies just doesn’t feel like it.

Happy Monday!

MEAB meets the internet.

  1. On July 1, Bilt will have a transfer bonus to Hilton Honors between 75% and 175% based on status, with the bonus on a maximum of 100,000 points. They’ll also have increased gift card redemptions between 25% and 100%, also based on status. Both might sound good on paper, but neither is a great value in practice.

    Side note: When 🙄 won’t do, there’s this.
  2. Coverd is a weird Visa consumer credit card that secured $7.8 million in funds by big names in venture capital. Some details:

    – Earn rate varies hourly (!)
    – There are varying 3-minute (!) “surge windows” for even bigger earning
    – Earn rate depends on transaction size, with 4 bands (!)
    – Boosted earn rates are limited to one transaction, until that category’s rates change (!)
    – Your monthly earn limit is based on last month’s spend
    – You can’t earn more than your points cap, which is variable
    – The value of points isn’t published, but seems to be 0.5 cents per point

    The best part? And I’m not making this up, their press talking points include the sentence: “traditional credit card rewards have become outdated with complicated points systems … Coverd aims to change that with a transparent rewards model“. Nice. (Thanks to David)
  3. Wyndham is devaluing redemptions for new bookings on September 15. Awards will have four price bands: 5,000, 15,000, 30,000, or 45,000 points nightly. RIP Scandinavia I guess, and it’s time to think seriously about whether or not you still want to hold a Wyndham credit card.
  4. The Citi AAdvantage Platinum Mastercard has an 80,000 mile sign-up bonus after $1,000 spend in three months, and the $99 annual fee is waived for the first year.

    This offer comes from an in-flight promotion and requires a six digit promo code. A random code like 000000 works (yes, technically 000000 could be a random number).
  5. The Capital One Spark Cash card has an increased sign-up bonus of $1,000 after $10,000 spend in three months, and the annual fee is waived for the first year.

    This “business” card will report to your personal credit report, and miles can transfer from this card to Venture X cards.
  6. Kroger fuel points can now be redeemed for groceries at a flat one cents per point in $10 increments, but only $10 per day so call it a slog at best.

Have a nice weekend, friends!

The Coverd office motto.